Hornung’s vivid telling of an abandoned boy’s struggle to survive Russia’s brutal urban environment, and intergrate with a pack of dogs is the definitive line on the timeless story of the child raised by beasts.

The ALS Gold Medal is awarded annually for an outstanding literary work in the preceding calendar year. The Medal was inaugurated by the Australian Literature Society, which was founded in Melbourne in 1899 and incorporated into the Association for the Study of Australian Literature in 1982.